Mentors sought to change young people’s lives

£1m BREAKTHROUGH Dundee scheme to boost life chances of care–experienced and vulnerable children

A £1 million mentoring scheme was launched in Dundee yesterday evening aimed at boosting the life chances of secondary-school-aged young people who are vulnerable or have experienced care.

BREAKTHROUGH Dundee will provide a one-to-one programme, designed to improve pupils’ academic performance and support them in achieving a ‘positive destination’ such as work or college after they leave school.

The programme will begin in Morgan Academy this month and will be followed by a second school, St Paul’s RC Academy, in October.

It is intended that all eight of Dundee’s secondary schools will be involved in the programme by 2019, supporting up to 500 care-experienced and other vulnerable young people in Dundee.

A pool of fully trained mentors will be recruited from local companies and Dundee’s wider community to be matched appropriately to the young people and to support those who sign up to take part.

Ellis Watson, the chairman of BREAKTHROUGH Dundee and executive chairman of DC Thomson Publishing, said: “BREAKTHROUGH is an incredible charitable initiative. Without radical intervention, statistics demonstrate that some of these young people will falter in life and fail.”

BREAKTHROUGH Dundee has been developed by the board of DC Thomson, inspired by the success of MCR Pathways, in Glasgow. The implementation stage of the Dundee programme is being fully funded until July 2020 by the Northwood Charitable Trust and is supported by Dundee City Council.